Winners of the 2012 Rice Business Plan Competition ring closing bell at Nasdaq

NuMat Technologies won the Rice Business Plan Competition, the world's largest and richest business plan competition, in April with its invention of a nanomaterial that can store gases just like a sponge soaks up water.

Pictured from left at the Nasdaq OMX in New York City are Ashok Rao, TiE global chair; Greg Price, director of consulting solutions, PKF Texas; Ben Hernandez and Omar Fahra, NuMat Technologies; Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, which hosts the annual business plan competition; Tabrez Ebrahim and Chris Wilmer, NuMat Technologies; Cari Broderson, vice president of marketing of the Greater Houston Partnership; Gautam Ghandhi, Google; and Alex Robinson, Insperity.